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Top 14 boss openly admits interest in Zach Mercer

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

The market for rugby players in Europe is well and truly back underway, with rumours, speculation and hearsay around contracts starting to leak out into the media. Bath flanker Zach Mercer is the latest player on the margins on the England set-up who is turning heads in France – according to reports.

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The Daily Mail report that Montpellier’s director of rugby, Philippe Saint-Andre, has said: ‘We are watching many players and Zach is one of them.’

Mercer, who was promoted to Bath’s senior squad from the Academy in 2017, has gone on to become a regular feature of the club’s matchday squads and has now made over 56 appearances for the Premiership side. His contract is coming to an end in 2021.

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Hamish Watson on whether or not he’ll feature for the Lions:

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Hamish Watson on whether or not he’ll feature for the Lions:

At 23 Mercer is at a crossroads. While he’s picked up two England caps under Eddie Jones, he faces stiff opposition as the Red Rose enjoys an unprecedented level of depth in the back row. Tom Curry, Sam Underhill, Billy Vunipola, Ben Earl, Ted Hill, Lewis Ludlum and now Jack Willis are all ahead of him in the England pecking order.

A serious knee ligament injury in 2019 didn’t help his cause and breaking back into the England team looks to be a big ask for the Leeds native. This will undoubtedly play into any decision over his future, as making himself unselectable by England with a move abroad will be less a sacrifice given his selection looks unlikely for the time being.

Both Carl Fearns and Steffon Armitage made the decision to leave England for France and never looked back. Fearns left Bath for Lyon, where he played three seasons. ‘I came to Lyon at a time when I wasn’t particularly enjoying my rugby and was made to feel welcome and a big part of it from the beginning.’ Fearns is now playing for Rouen in the ProD2.

Like Armitage left London Irish, with just a handful of England caps to his name and unfancied by selectors. “I got an offer to go to Toulon from Philippe Saint-André. He said, ‘if you come out, you’re going to be fourth choice’. I wanted to prove to myself and to everyone that I was good enough. I had to get over there and push for a starting place at Toulon. I took the hard step. I gave up everything, me and my wife, and we moved over and I’m glad we did as it made me the player I am today.”

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Armitage is currently playing for Biarritz in the ProD2.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Late Makazole Mapimpi try earns the Sharks win away to Edinburgh

Jake White described this as the strongest Sharks lineup ever. There is no doubt that it is at least an impressive roster. They did win, which is obviously an achievement against a good Edinburgh side. However …


For much of the first half Edinburgh seemed easily able to create 2 on 1 opportunities on both wings, with the defensive wingers biting in on the inside runner and cover defence being AWOL. Conversely the Sharks showed little ability to get behind the Edinburgh defensive line, with the sole exception of a nicely-exploited Am mismatch against a second row (which led to the Fassi try).


In general the Sharks, with their full complement of Bok firepower, do not look that dangerous in attack, and while tackling was good on the whole and goal line defence was impressive at times, they were exhibiting surprising breakdowns in open play defensive structures.


Also, the Sharks continue to be inaccurate, with material impact on the scoreboard. Missing two very kickable penalties is not the way to be the best. It looked to me like the Sharks contestable kicks were not well enough executed, and were too hard to recover.


Not sure what the running attack was trying to do, but my guess is that they were trying to pull off a Harlequins-style bash-and-offload game off of 12 (Esterhuizen). That’s not a terrible idea with the personnel available, but it would require creativity and a precision on second phase that was not in evidence.


Lastly, you have to have better discipline. It’s great that the team can cope with a 13 vs 14 period (of almost 10 minutes), but smart teams a avoid cards.


Having said that it was great to see the win. I thought that Edinburgh were cynical and niggly. Always hanging around on the wrong side of the breakdown, lots of intentional obstruction, illegal dummying at the base of the ruck, etc. They played a dirty game and the ref tolerated it. Always good to see that not succeed.


Overall the “best Sharks lineup ever” scraped the win, but under-performed their Bok-laden potential. Again.

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